Nice ones as usual Peter. I think that the Skyways livery, was one of the best on the 748.

Nice one Keith. Glad I’ve seen this post, I thought I was seeing things when I saw this flying close to where I live. In fact, it was the unusual sound it was making that made me look up in the first place. Nice catch Keith.

Matt, bearing in mind that its almost 26 years ago that I visited NK, or the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea as they prefer to call it, so I can only relate to what it was like then. During our 24 hour stopover in Beijing, our English tour guide reminded us if the fundamental does and don’ts whilst in NK. We were told, that the citizens were unaware that man had been to the moon, they had no idea about the AIDS problem, or ‘western pop groups’ and that we were to bear this in mind during our 12 day visit. I can’t believe that our NK tour guides, who would have been government appointees, would not have known of these things, in fact, the male guide was quite well informed about ‘Led Zeppelin’! So it was difficult to know who to believe. I took the view, as did some others on the trip, that we would not talk about anything to do with the West, unless the NK guides asked us.

Kim Il Sung was still at the North Korean helm at that time, so there had been no real changes for many years. If you’ve never visited NK yourself, its very difficult to explain the Orwellian, monolithic edifice, that is NK state. Of course it was never possible to speak to the ‘locals’ and none would have spoken English anyway, although sometimes, our guides would introduce us to a seemingly random passer by, and translate their version of polite conversation.

I do think that back then, most, if not pretty much all the population, sincerely believed that they lived in a virtual socialist utopia. A popular slogan on posters that we saw was ‘We have nothing to envy in all the World’ and I honestly think that the NK ‘comrades’ believed that. Most of the population alive today, have never known anything different to living under the ‘loving care’ of the ‘benevolent’ Kims. Despite the endless march of technological progress here in the West, I would still be very surprised, if more than a very few of those ‘sealed up’ in the socialist paradise, are getting any info from the outside world.

I do sense a change coming, under the new Kim. However, IMO I think that any changes that do come, will only be those which are approved by the NK military, as I think that it is they who really rule the country, and not the regime itself, but maybe even they, may be sensing that changes have to come. Will this be done by flirting with the tourist dollar, and getting involved with foreign companies, a la Cuba? or by other, more profound routes? I visited Albania in 1986, and the parallels between the two states was striking. The big difference was although Socialist Albania had isolated itself under the rule of Enver Hoxha, its ‘information borders’ were somewhat ‘porous’ I don’t think the same can be said of NK. After all, their new, and much trumpeted Internet provider, is totally home grown, and has no connections to the outside world. But I suspect that on the PCs in the ‘big houses’ in the leafy government suburbs of Pyongyang, doing a Google search for anything, is no problem.

Ironically, the new Shard building in London, bears an uncanny resemblance to the giant Ryangyong Hotel in Pyongyang, which in turn emulates Orwell’s description of ‘The Ministry of Truth’ in his epic 1984. Ain’t life strange….?;)

I visited NK in 1987, and it was one weird experience. I tend to agree with your post. However, I think that the physiological and cultural shock to the ordinary NK citizen, following a sudden collapse of the state itself, would be very profound indeed, and can in no way be compared with the effects of state collapse, on the citizens of the former Communist bloc.

IMO, there would need to be some kind of transitional change to a post Communist NK, possibly under the auspices of the UN, but I think that it would have to be quite a long period of time for this. There is also the likely negative effect, that a sudden re-unification of Korea would have on the economies of neighbouring Chinese provinces, and on South Korea itself, this would surely mean that a gradual integration would be vital.

Neil.

China will not permit North Korea to continue with their programme, to the point of their being able to miniaturise the weapon sufficiently, so as to allow it to be fitted to their delivery vehicle. Even their rocketry has had mixed results.

South Korea is a very major trading partner for the Chinese, so I don’t believe that they will place their already cool relationship with NK, ahead of continued good relations with SK. The ideological ‘comeradary’ between China and NK is also not what it was. But IMO, China is not keen to see a total collapse of the NK state at the present time, the humanaterian crisis alone would be catastrophic for Them. Personally I think that there is also the threat of a ‘scorched earth policy’ by the NK armed forces if it is staring at the demise of the regime, and all those connected with it.

IMO, I don’t believe that they have miniaturised the bomb sufficiently, for it to be placed on/in one of their rockets, but I would not be at all surprised, if it turns out that the North Koreans have been receiving external help with their nuclear programme. Pakistan would be my best bet. With NK being a state that has been a ‘hermetically sealed’ country since the late 40s, what the psychological effect of state collapse would be on the ordinary NK citizen, we can only guess.

Longshot… nice photo of Martinair Fellowship. I think the F28 was a lovely little jetliner. Friendship Union of Burma state is interesting. Is AMS where it was built, is that why it is at AMS?

I agree Sarah, the F28 is a very nice looking airliner. I worked with those of a Swedish airline Linjeflyg, and Air UK. The F70 is a fitting, and almost as pretty a replacement.

All of that is absolutely true, but, as I have said many times as well as in this thread, we are the masters of the supermarket’s destiny. If we all bought 15% less every week it would cause panic amongst the “big four”. 30% less would cause contraction.

It’s not difficult but it means we all have to go back to shopping how we used to and that, for the modern shopper, is very inconvenient. So, it won’t happen and shops like your relative’s will continue to be forced out of business.

I can’t disagree with a single word you’ve said there. Well put.